


Broken Promises

by loveIace



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: (but then more hurt), (they're friends ok), ANYWAYS uhhh this deals a lot with, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Rita POV, Unpretty / Realistic Mental Health Portrayal, just. rita helping juno out when he needs it Okay, mental health
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-16 10:53:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18092933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveIace/pseuds/loveIace
Summary: The first time it happens, Rita brushed it off as Juno taking an impromptu vacation. Hell, he was a grown lady that was technically in charge of his own business, what was it to her if he went off the grid for a few days? Besides, that week happened to be slow on work anyways. He was probably just taking a well deserved break.Juno struggles sometimes. Rita is there to help.





	Broken Promises

**Author's Note:**

> tbh this was super cathartic to write,,, don't mind me self projecting over here 
> 
> also!! rita is super fun to write I Love Her

The first time it happens, Rita brushed it off as Juno taking an impromptu vacation. Hell, he was a grown lady that was _technically_ in charge of his own business, what was it to her if he went off the grid for a few days? Besides, that week happened to be slow on work anyways. He was probably just taking a well deserved break.

The second time it happened, the whole situation just felt off. Granted, she had first commed him early that morning at the ungodly hour of eight am; who would be up that early anyways? It was only a few hours later when he didn’t respond back or answer any of the other thirty calls she sent his way that she began to get worried.

“Mistah Steel, I _know_ you aren’t out on a dangerous-top-secret mission right now, you gotta respond boss!” Her cheerful cadence was slightly strained with annoyance at being left ignored. Maybe the past dozen calls or so had been for personal reasons, but the first few had to do with work! They had a business to run, dammit!

By the second day, she was about to go crazy with just sitting around the office with still no response from her boss. She had restrained herself to only call once an hour that second day, but there was still not even an acknowledgement from his end. Rita grumbled at being ignored, but her irritation was minuscule to the worry she felt. Was he mad at her? Did he finally ditch Mars like he’d been saying he would for years? Was he dead, or worse, caught up in some trouble he didn’t even give Rita all the juicy details about?

She decided as she went home that evening that if he wasn’t at the office the next day, she’d stop by his apartment and check up on him. While Rita had no qualms about proper work relationships and protocols, she had never overstepped the boundary of going to Juno’s apartment before, but desperate times called for desperate measures! Besides, she already knew his address and could access the buildings security footage on a whim. It was just common courtesy not to. She wasn’t raised in a _barn_ , for crying out loud.

Her skills did not need to be utilized the next day. As she went to open the door of the office, she was surprised to find it already unlocked. Inside, she raced to Juno’s office to find him slouched over his desk, mulling over the pile of paperwork that had accumulated over the past few days. His eyes snapped up to Rita’s smile as she stood in the doorway.

“There you are, boss! You really had me for a scare there! There’s the case I was _trying_ to tell you about that you ignored, now you only have three days to finish it. Oh! Oh! And did I tell you about the latest episode of my show. You wouldn’t _believe_ what has happened now...”

Rita continued on as Juno flipped through the papers, only giving half responses to her ramblings. She was content with this; after all, they were finally back to normal!

Well. So it seemed at first. As Rita continued talking and going over everything that he missed from her calls, she began to sense something was still _off_.

Juno never really engaged in her episode critiques, but today he was really spaced out. Usually, he’d be able to humor her with the occasional nod and agreement as he did his work, but Rita watched as Juno stared at the same sentence over and over, seeming to not be able to digest it and the rest of the report. And the bags under his eyes were nothing new, but have they always been so prominent? Has his shoulders always slouched like the weight of Jupiter were on them?

Rita’s spiel trailed off and Juno hardly seemed to notice the silence.

“Ah, that’s about it, boss. You get working on that case now, y’hear me?” If he heard her, he didn’t show it. Rita slinked back to her office, frowning to herself. Maybe he was mad at her? Juno was a notoriously grumpy lady, but this felt different.

No, he wasn’t grumpy. He almost seemed to lack his gruffness. It didn’t sit well with Rita, but after another couple of days, Juno was back in business and irritable again, so she chalked it up to a bad day.

Months had gone by, and the whole incident had completely left Rita’s mind when she was yet again left with a dozen unanswered calls. They were in the middle of a case that had been driving Juno up the wall for _days_ and she was finally able to make a breakthrough. She was doing this for _him_ and he wasn’t even answering his stupid comm!

Rita was already annoyed with missing her broadcasts and the minimal sleep quota for this infiltration, and now the fruits of her labor were so casually being ignored and left to rot under the Martian sun? Nope. Nope, that was not happening. She gathered her files from her desk in a huff and marched out of the office, storming her way to her boss’ apartment.

Once there, she allowed herself to take out some of her pent up frustration by slamming her fist against the door. Repeatedly.

“Juno Steel, you answer this door right now! I have been sitting at my desk for _days_ gathering all the info you need for this stupid case and you already _know_  how little support those chairs have for my back! I can excuse you not helping with the hacking and working me overtime Mistah Steel, but I draw the _line_  at this! Oh, and another thing-“

Rita’s fists against the metal stopped as her rant continued, letting off the anger that has been accumulating since the first twenty four hours without sleep.

Finally, _finally_ , after the kettle ran out of steam and Rita said the bulk of her grievances, she breathed in a huge huff of air and stared at the door, arms crossed and full of paper. It was then that she realized that for the past few minutes of her ranting, she had not heard one peep from the other side of the door.

“Boss? Are you even there?”

The remaining rage immediately deflated from her as she stared at the door, a scowl of confusion and concern painted on her face. There was no way he’d let her go off like that long, both for the sake of his ears and due to the unexpected surprise of her showing up at his place out of the blue.

Her question was met with silence, and it was then Rita decided to act. With ease, she began tapping away at the panel next to the door, earning a small beep and unlocking it in record speed. She’d have to remember to come back some time and replace the landlords joke of a keypad with something that would at least take a few minutes or so to decode and hack into.

The spur of initiative that had driven Rita to march her way down and yell at her boss suddenly left her as she was faced with the very real decision to quite literally break into his house. While Rita was no stranger to breaking standard employee protocol, this maybe, just maybe, might be pushing the situation into a Human Resource intervention kind of scene.

 _Well, I_ am _our HR department anyways,_ Rita thought, shifting the papers securely under her arm and reached out for the handle it, pushing it open.

Dusk had been settling over Hyperion City as Rita made her way to the apartment, her march being guided by the street lights that littered the streets. She guessed that there must at least be a half hour or so of an evening glow before night truly fell. Basically, she was not expecting the pitch darkness that the room in front of her opened up to. As she crept forward, her nose wrinkled up as a wall of ripeness hit her senses.

“Boss?”

Deeper in the apartment, she heard something creak. Other than that, there was no sign of life or anything in the building. Rita wasn’t sure if she should take the noise as a positive thing or something to be concerned about. Hesitant and wary, she full walked into the apartment, leaving the door open for light until she was able to flip on a switch inside.

As the lights flickered on and the door clicked shut, she was met with an, uh, interesting sight.

The entry room was a mix between a living room and kitchen, small and cramped but standard for affordable living in Hyperion City. There was a couch sat in front of a screen, an end table and a bit further in was a basic kitchen and table. It was plain and undecorated—as expected from someone like Juno—except all the surface spaces were covered with garbage.

Aluminum cans and bottles and crumbled bags were strewn about, joined with piles of unwashed plates and silverware in the sink and counters. On the ground and furniture, rumpled up clothing sat. As she took another step further into the room, she saw his comm discarded on the floor, turned off or dead she could not tell.

Frankly, it was disturbing. And not just because it was a mess—Rita felt uneasy because she felt as though she had walked into something she was not meant to see, that no one was meant to see. How did this scene before her fit the gruff detective who took effort in maintaining his image? It didn’t make sense, it felt wrong.

By now, she was in too deep. Not only did she literally cross the threshold into this, but she couldn’t leave with so many questions and concerning context clues. Rita walked over to the table and pushed a few scraps of paper and cans out of the way to set her own files down. Then, taking a deep breath, she turned to the dark hallway.

She walked carefully, not trying to sneak up on Juno but definitely avoiding making a scene. The door at the end of the hall was cracked open, completely dark. Hesitating, she pushed it open slowly, cringing at the way the hinges creaked.

In the dark, she could barely make out the silhouette of a bed and a lump on top of it. As the door loudly announced her presence, the figure shifted on its side to face her.

“Uh, Juno? It’s me, uh, sorry for stopping by like this but you didn’t answer your comm and I was worried—well  
actually I was angry but _then_  I became worried—and I wanted to see you and I still can’t really see you, can I turn on a light? Are you sick? Is it your head?”

She was met with silence, and while she could not clearly see in the dark, the weight of him staring pushed into her. Rita suddenly felt very small and scared. Maybe she really did overstep the boundaries this time. Maybe she should leave, should act like she never saw anything. Maybe she should call someone.

Rita’s mind raced with every possible action. It was interrupted by a voice hoarse with disuse.

“Rita? Rita, you shouldn’t- you can’t be here.” Slowly, so so slowly, Juno pushed himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes. He sounded mortified, but there was an edge of exhaustion that softened the edges.

“I mean I _can_  because I am but, wait I know what you mean, sorry,” Rita shifted awkwardly in the doorway, looking down at the ground. “Can I turn on a light, Mistah Steel?”

“Rita, you should go,” Juno deflected from the question, resting his face in his hands.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, boss. You look like you haven’t moved in days!”

“Rita, I’m… I’ll be alright. You don’t need to worry. Just head home, okay? And you can take the rest of the week off,” Juno didn’t move from where he sat hiding in his arms.

Rita could tell this would go nowhere fast, so she made an executive decision. She flicked the light switch on.

The room looked more or less like the rest of the apartment she’d seen thus far. There were more empty cans and bottles scattered around, she noted with worry, but there were no horrifying revelations from the light other than the fact that her boss, no, _friend_ , was definitely not going to be alright any time soon.

Juno himself look as disheveled as the rest of the room. His undershirt was dirty and was probably the same one he was wearing when she’d last seen him. Same with his boxers. To put in the kindest, most understanding way possible, he was a mess. And he seemed to curl up tighter around himself, blocking out the light, blocking out his friend.

“Boss, look at me.”

He didn’t move.

“Mistah Steel.”

Nothing.

“ _Juno._ ”

Finally, he slowly lowered his hands and turned his head to glance at Rita. She could see their redness from tears, the exhaustion etched into the bags under them. He looked embarrassed and tired and so, so fragile.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Rita walked over to him, careful not to slip on anything on the way over to his bed. Juno continued staring at her, unspeaking as she rested her hand on his shoulder. He did not move. “Well, come on. Like I said, my back has been _killing_  me so there’s no way I’m picking you up,”

Slowly, she coaxed Juno to stand up on his wobbly legs, followed him to his bathroom, and turned on the faucet. Luckily, the bathroom didn’t seem to be in disarray like the rest of the place. Once the water was running, Rita turned around to look at Juno who was staring at her with a blank expression, seeming to ask what the hell she was doing.

“Come on, get that shirt off. But leave the boxers. We don’t need no HR violation here, y’here me?” Rita ordered, hands on her stout hips.

“This whole thing is a HR violation,” Juno mumbled, but he complied, shrugging off the ratty shirt and slinking over to the tub. Gingerly, he stepped in and fumbled a bit before sitting down. The water ran through his hair and down his back and he sighed before resting his head between his knees.

Carefully, Rita began helping him clean, helping him become a person again. She shampooed and rinsed his hair, handed over the face wash for him to rub onto his skin and wash off, dug out his tooth brush and shoved it in his hands to use. It wasn’t a perfect job; it was sloppy and lacked a whole lot of effort and precision on his part, but it was something. Once it was time for the body wash, Rita excused herself.

“Do the best you can and take as long as you need!” she chirped cheerfully as she shut the door behind her. Now that the lady was more or less cleaned up, it was time for some Rita magic in the rest of the apartment.

In the kitchen cupboard, she found plenty of garbage bags. Then she began to work.

First, she gathered all the empty beverage containers. It was concerning to find that the majority of them were alcoholic or not water, but Rita wasn’t one to judge. She was just there to help.

Once that was done, she picked up any other wrappers or disposable waste she could find, and then she moved on to gathering all the clothing in one huge pile in the living room. Later, she’d figure out how to work the laundry machines.

She took a quick pause from her work to grab a glass of water and a fresh pair of clothes for Juno to put on once he was done showering. She left it on the dresser for him to find.

Back in the kitchen, she began working on the pile of dishes, humming to herself as she worked. In the middle of the last stack, Juno came shuffling out of his room, his hair still damp but dressed in fresh clothing and nice and clean. His expression still looked lost, but the edges of his overall demeanor were smoothed out a little bit. His eyes appeared to still be full of tears, but they didn’t spill over yet.

“Lookin’ good, Mistah Steel! Why don’t you go rest up on the couch? Your bed is gonna take a bit to fix up,”

“Rita, what are you doing?”

“Mr. Steel, isn’t it obvious? I’m washing these dishes. Oh! This reminds me of this one character who would-“

“No, Rita,” Juno interrupted, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “I mean what are you doing _here_?”

“Now boss, if you hadn’t _interrupted_  me, I’d explain!” Rita quipped, putting one soapy hand on her hip and using the other to point at the couch. “Sit down and I’ll tell ya,”

Juno listened and flopped himself on the furniture, turning his head in Rita’s general direction. She continued speaking.

“Now, like I was saying, this reminds me of one character whose big brother, or was it step brother? Never mind, that doesn’t matter. Anyways! There was a character with _some_  kind of brother that sometimes needed help getting motivation, or if he wasn’t able to, he’d need someone to have the motivation for him instead! So his younger sibling, or whatever they were, would check in on him and help with groceries and whatnot when he needed them to! It’s kinda like that, ain’t it? I’m the younger sibling here to help!”

“Aren’t you older than me?” Juno said dryly. While his tone was flat, Rita could see a tear making its way down his face. She quickly wrapped up the last of her work before heading over to the other side of the couch.

“Point is, boss, I’m here because you need a little extra help,”

“It’s embarrassing,” his voice became harsh as he wiped another tear off his face, turning away from Rita and staring at the ceiling. She knew that he was only snapping because he didn’t know how else to react.

“That’s fine to be embarrassed, but you don’t have to be. This is what friends are for. And besides, I’m your assistant! I’m supposed to assist you, you know,”

“I don’t think this was part of the job description,” Juno mumbled.

“Neither was the time someone tried to hold me hostage because you pissed them off but then they got annoyed and let me go twenty minutes later, but hey, these things happen,” Rita said matter-of-factly. Juno couldn’t help but crack a small smile, and his tensed figure relaxed on the couch as he closed his eyes.

“Thank you, Rita,” he said softly.

“Any time, boss. Whenever you need help, I’ll be right here waiting,”

“I’ll hold you to it,”

 

-

  
By the third week of his disappearance into the Martian dust storm, Rita knew she was fooling herself. Alessandra had come to the office herself to explain what happened, to tell Rita with tears streaming down her face about how he and the former mayor and their furious bodyguard were locked outside, how his body wasn’t found buried in the sand with the other two, but the radiation and dust would’ve made it impossible for him to get far, anyways.

Rita knew that she should accept he wasn’t coming back. But she didn’t.

Quietly, she walked her way towards his apartment door. She easily punched in the passcode, she had been the one to design and install this new, super secure lock for him, and pushed the door open to the empty apartment.

It was already spotless from all the other visits she had made in the past few weeks, but maybe she had missed something last time. Maybe there was a dish to still put away, a crumb to sweep from under the couch. Maybe he had come home in the time since she’s last been there. Just maybe.

But no one was there, and there was nothing to clean. Nothing to help with. Nothing to do but sniffle, push back the tears, and head back out.

Maybe tomorrow would be different.

She’d make sure to check. She had made a promise, after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed!! and I hope this wasn't too terribly ooc!!
> 
>  
> 
> if you’d like and are able to, donating to my   
> ko-fi.com/aeskoro would mean a lot!


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